Off the seat of a bicycle
Chapter 20)  Bones and Dan the Informer
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My new free room was pure luxury. Bones took the room close to mine and we set off on a rambling spree of bad behavior that ranged from by-passing the laundry room pay-box to conspiracy to grow marijuana around the county.

Bones was connected to a drug dealer who had a house secluded in the countryside. I knew exactly where the house was from my hikes in the country, but the guy wouldn’t let me tag along when Bones visited … just as well … I didn’t want to do business. I wasn't a socializing guy. I only wanted the occasional product.

Bones emboldened me and I had the same affect on him, and we committed a few break-ins on campus. He was smart and popular and needed a jolt like me. I was street smart and leery, so we matched up pretty well for a few careless years.

Couple years before, when we both lived at the dorm, was the first time we broke into a campus building. It was his idea. We stole an exit-sign and fire extinguisher. On the way back a patrol car spotted us and we ran off along the railroad easement and dropped our bounty.

It was against my instinct, but half hour later we went back to retrieve the stuff, and you have to wonder why we needed an exit-sign or fire extinguisher in the first place? The only answer possible is the jolt.

Just as we started picking up the stuff, a radio crackled and I spotted a watchman back in the trees. He was calling for the patrol car. Immediately I took the lead. I knew it would never do to run back to the dorm because they would trail us like hound dogs. Instead we climbed up to the railroad tracks and started running east over the bridge going toward 7th street. Below us came the police car screaming up the street. We had a 200 yard head start but I was running slow to let the police catch up and Bones was panting and saying ‘lets go, let’s go,’ and I laughed.

In one of the most revealing moments of my life, I asked Bones, ‘haven’t you ever been chased by the police?’ and he emphatically said no. I was totally surprised. I honestly thought everybody had been chased by the police. Only later did it dawn on me that most people had never experienced it, and most would consider it an extremely negative event in their lives. The revelation was a shock.

So here I was 18 or 19 and astonished to discover not everybody had been chased by the police. Gee, how far out on the normal curve was that?

I was running slow so the police would keep running toward us and not go back to the car and race ahead on the street.
I also wanted to linger in the darken middle-area between intersections as long as possible in case another police car showed up at the intersection ahead. But equally important was to gauge the running speed of the police while disguising our speed, so once we turned off the tracks we could blow it up to full gear.
Simple thinking born of evasive experience. Maybe I learned how to evade just to stay out of my father’s glare, but the real advantage I had over the police that night was knowing the terrain. Yes, I walked that stretch of track several times and knew the cut offs.

As it turned out no other cars joined the chase. The police kept running after us, and we took a right off the railroad track and quickly doubled back in the weeds and let the two officers pass. One officer had equal instincts and turned his flashlight right on our hiding spot. Of course I knew the light would hit the leaves and blind the officers to our presence. Bones was ready to bolt, but I grabbed his arm. After the officers went up the sidewalk and ran off into the parking lot, we worked our way back across the tracks and disappeared the other direction.

Bones laughed and said the police were stupid. I knew it wasn't true but didn't say. It's bad luck to start boasting and take your eyes off the surroundings, because they could spot you any time, and there were more of them than us.

Today they would’ve caught us easy, but the whole thing was nonsense from the start. It was all stupid. I can feel Dr. Gray’s stare as I write this. And now, 38 years later, I understand what he was saying; ‘you have to choose well in life.’ But what a delayed effect Dr. Gray’s bomb had on my consciousness.

After the narrow escape, we went back to the dorm and carried heavy rocks up to the roof, hurling them off until we hit and destroyed a tall walkway light. We laughed crazy, and I admit, I'm laughing now.

We broke into the central building at the dorm. His idea again. We hid under a staircase when the security guard made his rounds. Bones wanted to run, but I knew to sit and make no fuss.

Our next break-in was a construction site where he found an unlocked tunnel leading into the building, and we stole tools and other junk. Again it was the jolt. We were just wild Indians buzzing up society’s ass.

We stole a motorcycle. His idea. Then got it running and went for a test ride with me on the back. We rounded a corner and there was cop car. Bones immediately pulled to the curb and was ready to run. I grabbed his arm. The cop got out and I pulled a story out of my shorts.
I told him it was my brother's bike and he wanted us to get it running, and that we had just got it started and were taking a test spin, so we didn't have the plate ... or helmets ... but we lived at the apartments just around the corner. Forget the broken ignition lock, the policeman asked if we could walk it back. No problem.

After that Bones wanted nothing to do with the bike, but I started riding it around on the campus sidewalks. A policeman tried to tackle me and ended up stumbling into a hedge-row. Stupid me, that seemed funny.

I took the motorcycle riding again the next day, but this time saw a couple of people looking at me … and then I noticed a security guard talking on his radio, so I headed towards the woods.

Pretty soon a patrol scooter came rushing after me so I turned the motorcycle down a dirt trail and drove that bike down the steep hill through the woods until it crashed at the bottom. I tumbled off in front of a group of students and ran away leaving the motorbike behind. I was a regular marauder.

The last break-in Bones and I committed was in the chemistry building where he was taking classes. It was his idea. There was a store room with electronic gismos, and we wanted some trinkets … again I have to ask, if they were selling the same stuff at a flea market for 50¢, would either of us have purchased it? Probably yes, but more to sit in a drawer than because it filled some imperative use.

The deed was done and our bags were full, but on the way out a security man unexpectedly came in the back door. He wasn’t coming our way but Bones panicked and ran up the stairway whereas I could always hold my nerve. But once he broke, I had to follow. Together we ran down another flight of steps and burst out the front entrance of the building, which was lit-up like a main stage. We were lucky nobody was nearby because we were visible for blocks.

We ran down the street and ducked along a darkened streambed. Bones was on high-alert and quickly scrambled away saying he wanted to split up. That was a good instinct and I let him go before ingratiating myself back onto a different sidewalk and started walking slowly as if coming from a completely different direction.

About fifteen minutes had passed and the police were questioning two guys sitting on their car hood. I walked by making sure to glance at them two times like an ordinary passer-by might do.

Today they would respond with more police and they would have stopped me as I walked past, but the inescapable reality was: I only mimicked ordinary behavior. I was not able to act normally, yet thought myself to be perfectly normal.

Bones and I never did anything else after that night, but a short time later a new guy showed up at the apartment building and started hanging around me. Bones wanted nothing to do with him, but Dan and I became friends. It took 5 years before I figured out Dan was a police informant. Maybe Bones saw it right away.

When I confronted Dan 5 years later about being an informant, he said, ‘well at first.’ And there’s a measure of truth to what he said, but it proved to be a casual truth at best. I figured out that my friends were how the police would approach me from then on, and so that’s how I communicated to them in return.

Bones moved into a real apartment with real friends and confided that he would never risk his future again for the stunts we pulled. But that was a blinder he threw on me to protect himself since he kept using and growing hooch for years afterward. I guess we all have a story we tell ourselves, but it was smart to cast our boats in different directions. We were like fire and gasoline together.

Even so ... I caused a change didn’t I? Bones got to see the boogeyman, and became more streetwise, and he probably voted later to beef up law enforcement to stop guys like us from parading around the law.

Ultimately everything changed and today’s lawbreakers and sociopaths are turned loose to run the corporations that overcharge your family … and it’s all nice and legally protected by the same police that chased us for being stupid.

Chapter 21) A fledgling business is born
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